Convert American Express PDF statements to Excel, CSV or QuickBooks

Updated 2026-10-10

Need American Express transactions in a spreadsheet or your accounting software, but only have PDF statements? LocalLedger reads text-based American Express credit card statements inside your browser — the file is never uploaded — and rebuilds clean rows: date, description, signed amount and balance.

Step 1: Get the PDF from American Express

Sign in to American Express online banking, open the account and look for Statements (sometimes under Statements & documents or the account menu). Download each month as PDF. Statements downloaded this way contain real text, which is what a converter needs. A scan or a phone photo of a paper statement does not — run OCR on it first.

Only need the last few weeks? Online banking may offer a direct CSV or Excel download of recent activity — use it. PDF conversion is for older months and for statements someone sent you.

Step 2: Convert it

Open the converter and drop one or more American Express PDFs on it (several months at once is fine).
Check the summary: opening balance + transactions should equal the closing balance. A mismatch means a row was missed or misread.
Review the table, fix anything odd, remove duplicates if months overlap.
Download: QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, Excel, CSV, QIF or OFX.

What is different about US statements

Dates: US statements usually use MM/DD (month first), often without the year on each row. LocalLedger detects the order from the whole file and fills in the year from the statement period.
Amounts: debits and credits are often in separate columns or marked with signs like CR/DR. You get one signed Amount column (money out negative) plus optional Money In / Money Out.
Credit cards: card statements print purchases as positive numbers. For your books they are money out, so LocalLedger detects card statements and flips the signs — payments to the card become positive.
Currency: amounts are kept as printed (USD); no conversion is applied.

Using QuickBooks Desktop? Convert to CSV here, then turn the CSV into an .IIF file with IIF Kit — rules like shell => Fuel map each row to your accounts.

Is it safe?

Most online converters upload your statement to their server. LocalLedger does the work with JavaScript on your own device, so the statement never leaves it. See is it safe to upload bank statements online?

If your statement is not read correctly

Bank layouts change. If a American Express statement converts with missing or wrong rows, email ahlak2049@gmail.com with a description of the problem (no need to send the statement) — and you can always correct rows in the table before exporting.

LocalLedger is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by American Express. Bank names are trademarks of their owners and are used only to describe compatibility.

Try it with your own statement. LocalLedger reads the PDF or CSV in your browser, shows every transaction for review and checks the totals against the statement balances.

Convert a American Express statement — free preview

FAQ

Can I convert American Express statements without uploading them?

Yes. The conversion runs in your browser; the PDF is never sent to a server.

Is it free?

You can preview every transaction and export up to 15 rows free. LocalLedger Pro is a one-time $29 payment for unlimited exports.

Does it work with scanned American Express statements?

No. It needs text-based PDFs, like the ones downloaded from online banking. Scans need OCR first.